Cyborg of Midgard: Idol
by carrie the small
Summary: It all starts when the Avengers realize their good captain understands more modern references than ever. Then they hear about the child genius who's cleaning up after their mess after the battle with Loki. But what they find most interesting of all is a famous woman who seems to have unnatural genius...
1. Disclaimer

DISCLAIMER/WARNING PAGE. The actual story starts on the next chapter, but you may want to read this before you start (especially if you have something that triggers you).

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Overall story rating: M (not for smut, but for reasons listed in the extremely long disclaimer below).

Rating of Part 1: T. This part mostly sets up the background of the characters and gets the plot going.

of Part 2: M. This is where shit really hits the fan, in case you can't figure that out.

of Part 3: T/M (depending on how things work out). This is how things work out.

Overall Primary Genres: Adventure/Family.

Other genres: Mystery/Friendship/Angst/Humor/Romance? (depending on what your definition of romance is, because that definition gets a little twisted in here).

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This is mainly an OC-centric story in the beginning, so bear with me. I will consider every request given to me for this story, but keep in mind that most of it is already written and that some things can't be changed because of that. Any requests as to what you'd like to see in this story (excluding smut, but can include funny scenes, favorite ships, etc.) can be posted in the reviews, and I will add them to the list of things to consider (with guest reviewer "Geronimo's" requests at the top). Also, this is a three-part story. Once I've posted the sequel(s), I'll leave notes here for whoever doesn't want to (or can't) follow me.

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Giant Warning: this story is NOT for everyone!

Risqué themes include:

-various mental disorders (and their causes, which is what really deserves a warning)

-nearly nonstop swearing

-general sex stuff (no smut, though)

-prostitution

-abuse of all kinds (verbal, emotional, and physical), possibly including outright rape (this particular part won't described in detail)

-unhealthy relationships of all kinds

-suicide

-racism and sexism if you squint

-polyamorous relationships (if that's not your cup of tea, be warned)

...and of course (I really shouldn't have to give people a warning for this, but because I'm nice and I accept that not everyone has the same views as I do, I will)...

-all manner of things that would make homophobes run for the hills

Everything listed above will appear in the story, although not necessarily in the first part, hence the lower rating. You'll get eased into the dark stuff (mostly). This story will start out light and slowly get darker and darker until you need a flashlight (and possibly a few tissues, depending on how attached you are to the characters involved).

Ratings (and warnings) will be posted by chapter, like my other stories. Except for the stuff that would scare homophobes. You folks will just have to tread lightly.

I know that gay marriage is legal in America now, but because of the story's timing, it isn't legal yet for a majority of the story (which is also set in America; duh).

While this story is in the point of view of an Irish narrator, it's in American English (you'll find out why in the story), so no hate!

While the story is mine, most of the characters are not, and there are quite a few scenes that have been borrowed from the movies and/or referenced (duh, it's a fanfiction).

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Before you read, you might want to understand the concept of intellectualization (one of many psychological defense mechanisms). According to an article by Abha Khetarpal, intellectualization "separates an individual from the emotional constitutes and elements of an upsetting happening, redirecting one's focus towards the facts".

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Love you all,

-carrie


	2. Prologue

_Mechanophobia: Fear of Machines_  
 _by Jamaal May_

 _There is no work left for a husk._  
 _Automated welders like us,_  
 _your line replacements, can't expect_  
 _sympathy after our once bright_  
 _arms of cable rust over. So come_

 _collect us for scrap, grind us up_  
 _in the mouth of one of us._  
 _Let your hand pry at the access_  
 _panel with the edge of a knife_  
 _silencing the motor and thrum._

 _..._

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Prologue: One Year Before Loki's Attack

Mariko ran.  
For how long, no one ever knew for sure. Even she had no idea how she had managed to get from South Carolina all the way to Pocantico Hills, New York. Later, she did recall taking a bus most of the way there, but she didn't remember where she got off (i.e. ran out of money).  
All she knew was that it was raining. It soaked straight through her red fleece pajamas in minutes, effectively making her tiny body colder and her movements restricted.  
The lights went off in a nearby house, and a young woman who looked to be somewhere in her twenties went out onto the house's roof-covered porch with a book and a chocolate bar.  
Mariko knocked gently on the door. The woman continued reading. Now that Mariko was closer, she could see that the woman had earbuds in, and was bobbing her head slightly to the music. She knocked louder, and still no answer.  
Mariko knocked as loudly as her shyness could take, and finally the woman looked up. The second she saw Mariko's soaked form, she dashed to the door and pulled it open.  
About an hour later, Mariko was sitting in the dining room, freshly showered, in some spare clothes, holding the largest bar of chocolate she had ever seen in her life, and watching the woman who called herself Tia make green tea.  
Tia never asked why Mariko ran away, and Mariko was grateful for that; she wasn't anywhere near ready to talk about it. The only thing that Tia asked her about was her name and her favorite color. Mariko's immediate response was red.  
"Do you need a ride home, Mariko?" Tia asked. At that, Mariko looked down, crushed. If this woman decided to take her back home—  
"Or do you just need a home?" Tia proceeded to ask, causing Mariko to raise her head.  
Slowly, Mariko nodded. Who _was_ this woman?  
"It's all right," Tia said. "I know about kids who run away, trust me."  
"Don't take me back," Mariko said softly.  
"Wasn't planning on it," Tia said calmly. "But there's something you'll need to know first..."

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 **I'm back... for now... ;)**

 **Love you all,**

 **carrie**


	3. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Acknowledging The All-Knowing Pepper Potts

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Tony Stark wanted a normal day. That's all he wanted. One normal day where he had time for both his lab and Pepper.

Of course, that was asking for a miracle, and of course he never got it.

This particular day looked promising at first. That is, until Captain _fucking_ America decided to _ruin_ it.

He laughed at a Saw reference.

 _Steve Rogers_ , watching Saw? Knowing anything about the Saw series? This was something Tony couldn't possibly understand.

The rest of the team was confused, too. Steve hadn't even blinked when they made several horror movie references throughout dinner that night, nor had he blushed when Tony mentioned the good time he'd had the previous night. Well, he had blushed a little, but not as much as Tony had expected.

The final straw, however, was the lack of reprimands from their captain about their language.

"Steve, what's happened?" Natasha finally broke and asked him one day.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you knew the song Tony just played, you weren't horrified at Tony's recounting of having sex with Pepper in the bathtub, and you barely flinched when Bruce swore after cutting his finger yesterday."

"Why would that be wrong?" Steve asked.

"It's wrong because it's not normal," Clint said from the side. "Seriously, what the fuck is going on with you?"

"Nothing, I'm just—"

"See?" Natasha said. "Two months ago, you would have glared at Clint and said 'Language!' This isn't normal—"

"It's a girl, isn't it," Pepper said from her spot at the doorway.

Steve looked at her. "Not exactly—"

"What do you mean, not exactly?"

Fury chose _that exact moment_ to call, making everyone on the team curious as to what Steve's answer would have been.

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 **And here's a little more to think about...**

 **Love you all,**

 **carrie**


	4. Chapter 2

**I meant to update this earlier last week, but our internet was acting weird. So now you get two chapters!**

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Chapter 2: Mariko Starling: Child Genius

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Bruce watched the small child on the news carefully.

She was a Japanese girl who couldn't have been more than seven, and she was demonstrating a bridge she had designed. But this bridge wasn't for her school's science fair. It was for New York City.

After the Avengers' latest fight, three of the Big Apple's bridges were left on the verge of collapse, and this tiny girl on the news had a solution for all three.

The girl—Mariko Hernandez, according to the caption below the screen—had designed three bridges that were unique according to which bridge they would be replacing, and were completely collapse-proof barring another massive attack from Loki. It was work that should have taken months, done in under a week.

Once Mariko's mother contacted locals who were trying desperately to figure out how to solve the problem, the government took notice. Now, Mariko Hernandez's apparent gift was known nationwide.

Mariko's mother stepped up to the microphone after her daughter had taken down the charts.

"Mrs. Hernandez, when did you realize Mariko's genius?" a reporter asked.

"Since the second I saw her," the woman said, pride evident in her voice. "She ran away from her real parents a year back. I took her in, pushed some paperwork through, and now she's mine."

"How did you raise such genius in under a year?"

"Oh, I didn't raise a genius," Mrs. Hernandez said with a laugh. "Genius isn't a thing that can be raised, unless you happen to have enough money to buy a small country. No, I _challenged_ one. Every time there's a natural disaster on the news, I pull up a picture and ask Mariko what she would improve first. And whenever there's news of a breakout of a deadly disease somewhere, I ask Mariko how the patients should be cared for. And besides, my little sister babysits all the time, and you know how smart she is."

The reporter nodded. "Ah, yes, Ellie Starling. Has it been hard for you to raise someone so talented as she is?"

The woman smiled. "The only time it's been difficult is when I come home to find equations and blueprints all laid out carefully on the floor when I'm trying to get my groceries to the kitchen without falling over."

"Mrs. Hernandez, does Mariko ever interfere with your job? Your relationship with your sister? It must be hard enough keeping up with Ellie, considering how famous she is."

"Not really," Mrs. Hernandez said. "When Mariko needs or wants alone time with me and Julio, we make time. It's as simple as that."

The interview continued for a few minutes, but Bruce wasn't interested in that. He was interested in Tia Hernandez's little sister.

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 **Now, you guys are awesome for reading this, but seriously? Over a hundred views, and only one review? I'm starting to think this story isn't any good...**

 **Oh, well. If no one cares about it, I'll have to scrap it.**

 **Hint: reviews keep the story going.**

 **Love you all,**

 **carrie**


	5. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: What The Gods Did To Me

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Now, as the person who's writing this story down, I think it's only fair to tell you where I fit in.

My name was Gabe Watson. Yes, Watson like Dr. John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes books. And yes, writing is my job. And yes, I first wrote about all of this on a blog.

The difference? I have Asperger's syndrome; it means I'm smarter than most kids my age, but I'm also the most socially awkward person alive because social cues (even basic ones) make about as much sense to me as the idea of Donald Trump being a good president. I'm also Irish— _definitely_ not British—and I'm twelve years old. (No, I'm not ginger. My parents weren't, either. Not all Irish people are ginger. Let's move on.)

Well, I'm thirteen now. I was only five when this whole thing started, though, and that's where (when) we're going right now.

I first met Ellie Starling when Loki attacked the Avengers in New York City. Now, you've all seen videos and pictures of the city during and after the attack, so you can probably guess how many people died in that disaster.

My parents were two of the lives lost that day.

We were on a tour bus. Mum and Dad had saved up for a trip to the U.S. for years, and they finally got together enough money to bring me along, too. That bus was filled with people from all over the British Isles. We met a friendly couple from Kent that had just gotten married, identical twin girls from Scotland who were taking a break from school to meet their American cousin, and a few other nice people. We were only two days into our week-long tour of New York City when the attack came.

Almost everyone made it out of the bus before it was crushed by debris. I know a few people that survived, and I'm still in touch with the newlyweds we met that day (they named their twins after the Scottish twins who didn't make it out in time). Mum, being a police officer back home, immediately snapped into her "make sure the civilians survive" mode, and Dad being Dad couldn't leave her, and I was too little to imagine going anywhere without my parents.

I don't remember the bus actually being crushed, but when I woke up, I was in the arms of a well-tanned woman with her shortish hair back in two tiny braids and her clothes torn and stained with what I naively thought was ketchup at the time. That was Ellie.

She told me what happened to my parents right away. Didn't seem to see the point in hiding it, I guess. Then she set to work cleaning me up. Both of my legs were broken, so Ellie had to carry me to a hospital, where she waited with me for nearly ten hours while more severe cases were being treated. She absolutely refused to leave me by myself, and I didn't want her to leave (especially since she snuck me peppermints from her purse whenever she could).

Ellie gave me to her sister, Tia, right away. There wasn't another option from the beginning. I didn't have family back in Ireland, and she didn't want to leave me in the hands of the government. But Ellie, being incredibly famous and busy, didn't have the time to take care of me like a parent should. She was also a terrible role model, which was the main reason she decided to leave me in the charge of her more responsible sister.

When Tia took me to my new home, I discovered that I had a new father: Julio Hernandez, Tia's husband and possibly one of the most patient people alive. I also found that I had a sister who was adopted. Her name (as I'm sure you can figure out for yourselves) was Mariko, and she was (and still is) a genius.

"Genius" is a blanket term, of course—I know quite a lot of people who are geniuses in whatever their chosen field of expertise may be, and I'll introduce you to a few of them later—but here I use it in its stereotypical "Einstein" form when I say that Mariko was a child genius. She knew Japanese and English equally well even though she was only four years old at the time, she knew how to take apart any Stark technology you please and improve it when she put it back together, and she loved—absolutely loved—studying various diseases. As of the time this book is being written, she is twelve years old, her current chosen field is cancer treatments, and she's helping develop a vaccine for lung cancer that will literally save thousands of lives once it's finished (don't ask me how a vaccine will work against cancer; Mariko tried to explain it to me once, but I didn't even understand a quarter of what she said).

Now that my little sob story is out of the way (and it's not even that bad, because I was too little to remember most of it), here's "Ellie Starling's" massive one. (And, yes, the quotations are meant to be there.)

I think I'll start with the day we met Steve Rogers.

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 **Love you all,**

 **carrie**


	6. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Through The Window (That's a rubbish title, Ellie, I hope you know that)

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Captain America was thrown straight through the window that Mum had just cleaned.

It was "spring cleaning" time (a phenomenon that seems to happen in our house right before school starts in September); Mariko was in charge of cleaning the windows upstairs, and Mum and I were doing the downstairs ones.

Mum (I call Tia my mum; it's weird to call her anything else) was at work, and Dad was at school getting ready for the new school year (he teaches high school chemistry; now you see why I said he's patient?). So Ellie came over to babysit us for the day, and she recruited us to help clean up the house to surprise Mum and Dad.

Ellie had just gone to the kitchen to get some water. I was finishing the last window when something big broke through the window to my left.

Our living room's left wall was made entirely of three enormous windows. Sometimes, Mum and Dad would open one of them, and Mariko and I could run outside and play while they took care of their respective jobs from the couch. Captain America broke through the one to the left.

Being the eloquent, articulate little eight-year-old boy I was, I simply sat there and stared at the man on our floor, Windex in my left hand and slightly dirtied paper towel in my right, mouth open wider than a fish's.

"What in the worl—whoa," Mariko said as she ran downstairs and caught sight of America's golden boy barely conscious on our living room floor.

That's when Ellie walked in, eyebrow raised.

The good captain looked up. "Hello, ma'am," he said apologetically.

"I see you've let yourself in," Ellie said dryly. "Make yourself comfortable, why don't you."

So ten minutes later, Captain America sat on the couch explaining why he had fallen while Ellie cleaned up the broken window. Apparently, what had first appeared to be a small skirmish turned out to be much more serious than expected.

"And then these enormous—anyway, I'm sorry to break your window, ma'am," Captain America said. "I'd better go back to the team."

"Good luck with that battlefield of yours," Ellie said with a smile. "By the way, feel free to crash here if you need help again."

"I'll keep that in mind, ma'am," the captain said as he walked out of the front door. "I'll send someone to replace your window if you want."

"It's fine," Ellie said. "And just call me Charly."

Captain America ran off, shield in his hand, with a wave behind him at us.

Mariko and I hadn't said anything throughout this entire encounter; rather, we gaped like fish and held our eyes wide open in a similar fashion.

"Well, that was cool," Ellie said lightly with a smile, like this was perfectly normal for her. From there, our day was mostly normal, except that after dinner I was pulled into Mariko's room.

Mariko's room was mainly occupied by an enormous table that sat at the center of the room that was covered with various piles of papers and mathematical equations I'm still quite sure no one would ever need unless they happened to be planning to launch a manned rocket to Jupiter in the near future. Mariko pulled me around this remarkably large table and took me to her little spot by the window, where she had two beanbag chairs. That was where we'd sit to talk about important things, and this was definitely an important thing.

"Wow," Mariko said, a huge smile on her face. "That. Was. Awesome!"

"I know!" I said just as excitedly. "I just wish I'd gotten an autograph."

And I really did. Out of all the superheroes I knew, Captain America was my favorite by far.

"Me, too," Mariko said. "Can you imagine how many pencils I'd be able to buy with that?"

"Mariko, you realize if you just wrote with a mechanical pencil instead of your wooden ones—"

"No," Mariko said firmly. "I don't like mechanical pencils, Gabe."

"What do you have against mechanical pencils?"

"They're annoying," Mariko said firmly. No matter how much of a genius she was, sometimes I would get a reminder that Mariko was only six; this was one of those times.

"D'you think he'll come back?" I asked.

"Maybe," Mariko said. "He's from the nineteen-forties, Gabe. If anything, he'll come back to fix up the window."

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 **The only reason I updated this was because it got a new follower. Review please, or I'm just going to assume you don't like it and take it down!**

 **Love you all,**

 **carrie**


	7. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Ellie's New Job As A Part-Time Teacher

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Just as Mariko predicted, he did come back to fix the window; and he came prepared.

It was about a week before school started. Mum had to leave unexpectedly to talk to a new client (she's a lawyer), and so Ellie was taking care of us again.

When Ellie saw the captain, she laughed. "I thought superheroes are supposed to have better things to do than fix up windows," she said.

"Not today," the captain said. "Charly, right?"

"You remembered," Ellie said with a smile. "I didn't introduce these two last time," she said apologetically. "Mariko's upstairs, and the boy staring at you is Gabe."

I stopped staring and decided to make myself look busy instead by running upstairs. Only later did I realize that it made me look like an idiot instead of busy.

When Mariko and I crept back down the stairs, we were greeted by the strange sight of Captain America replacing a window while talking to Ellie.

"Your name's Steve Rogers, right?" she asked casually.

"That's right, ma'am," Steve said.

"Do you know much about Youtube?"

"Not really," Steve said apologetically with a blush. "I know you can watch videos on it, but I don't know much else—"

"It's all right," Ellie said right away. "I was just curious."

But I knew that on the inside, Ellie was smiling.

Back then, Ellie was really famous on Youtube. She called herself "Charly" (she liked to say it was short for chartreuse) on her channel; why she introduced herself as Charly to Steve instead of Ellie was beyond me, but Mariko seemed to think it was perfectly normal, so I never questioned it much.

Ellie was probably relieved that Steve had no preconception of what she would be like. That way she didn't have to live up to or ruin expectations, simply because there weren't any.

The TV was playing, and the man on the screen said something along the lines of: "We're not straight outta Compton, Billy, we're two white kids from the middle of nowhere!"

At Steve's confused expression, Ellie said, "It's a reference. 'Straight Outta Compton' is kind of a fad right now."

"Oh," Steve said. Then, he turned back to Ellie. "You know a lot about little things like that."

"I would hope so with my job," Ellie said with a smile. "What's up?"

Steve shifted uncomfortably. "Could you explain some of the things I've heard? I don't like being caught off guard."

"No, I'd imagine not," Ellie said with a smile. "It's cool, Steve. Just don't break the window every time you stop by and we'll be good."

Steve smiled. "Thank you ma—"

"Charly," Ellie said, eyebrow raised. "Your modern lessons start now. Your homework is to call people by their names unless they scare you or you hate them. If you want to be formal, just say their last names."

Steve smiled. "I'll see you when I can, Charly."

"See you later, Steve," Ellie said. "By the way, I'm only babysitting the kids for the day. I'm right across the street."

She scribbled something on a sticky note in pen and handed it over.

Steve left after putting his work gloves back in his toolbox. Mariko and I quickly hurried back upstairs to her room to discuss what we had heard.

That's when we first noticed something: Ellie was herself. She was herself on her channel to an extent, but she always exaggerated things, and she swore way more than she did in real life. Also, she never featured me in one of her videos because I was extremely shy, when in reality she and I were rarely separated if we were in the same place.

We noticed something else, too. Maybe it was just a nineteen-forties thing, but Steve seemed extremely eager to fix the window that he broke, and yet was mainly talking to Ellie the whole time.

Mariko, of course, over-thought the whole thing. "I'll bet they get married in two years, tops!"

"No, there's no way," I said firmly. After thinking about it for a minute, I said, "Make it five years tops, and there's a possibility."

At that thought, both of us smiled.

* * *

 **Ah, reviews. The things that keep me writing. Thanks!**

 **Extra love to:**

 **Guesswho: sorry for the late response, but I'm glad I've got you.**

 **nightmarehunter676: thanks! I hope you continue to like it!**

 **7doom: if you enjoy angst with a dash of sarcastic humor, you will like where this story's headed.**

 **And of course extra love to followers of both me and this story!**

 **As per usual, pointing out typos is much appreciated and PMs are always welcome (although I can't promise I'll get to them right away).**

 **(Still) love you all,**

 **carrie**


	8. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: A Few Things They Learned About Ellie

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While Clint was out on a mission, Laura Barton was trapped with her children, who were excited to show her a video they found on Youtube. In the video, a woman who called herself Charly was painting her own face.

"What exactly is the point of this?" Laura asked.

"That's the makeup I want for Halloween!" Lila said excitedly, bouncing up and down.

"Check out her costume!" Cooper said. "It's wicked!"

It was, in fact, a "wicked" costume. Charly had dressed herself up in a Victorian-era dark turquoise dress with black lace all over it. She had a masquerade mask in her right hand and a dainty black purse in her left. Her face was painted to look like a skeleton's.

"That's incredible," Laura admitted.

"She said her friend made it!" Lila said. "She said her friend Cam makes costumes. Can we find Cam and ask for a costume like Auntie Nat's?"

"Maybe your dad will know something," Laura said with a shrug.

So when Clint returned two days later, Laura asked him what he knew about Charly the Youtube star.

"Not sure," he admitted. "I know Pepper likes watching her videos. I can ask her next time I see her."

So he asked Pepper about Charly the next week, when they crossed paths at the tower.

"You know who she is?" Pepper asked, a smile on her face.

"Apparently she has a friend that makes Halloween costumes," Clint said with a shrug. "Laura asked about her, and I figured you'd know."

"Oh, trust me, I know," Pepper said. "She's actually pretty famous. She worked as a model until she was eighteen, and then she switched over to Youtube for some reason. She's always been smart and reasonable from what I can see."

Coming from Pepper, who was dating Tony and often met famous people, this was an enormous stamp of approval.

"Have you ever actually met her?" Clint asked.

"No, but I'd like to someday," Pepper said. "She may be young, but she's quite mature for her age."

Little did they know that JARVIS recorded the conversation.

* * *

 **Sorry for the short chapter and long absence, but it's been pretty hectic lately and I'm going through quite an emotional roller coaster ride right now. Expect nothing else from me for a while.**

 **Extra love to:**

 **geronimo: 1st review: way ahead of you. ;) 2nd review: also way ahead of you. Almost all of my sources agreed that Mariko roughly meant "child of ten thousand villages", which will make much more sense later on, when we learn more about Mariko.**

 **Love you all,**

 **carrie**


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